


The Anniversary (Long Drives and Surpises)

by zestylady



Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Aged-Up Characters, El and Mike are an established couple, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, High School, M/M, Multi, and he doesn’t know what to do, but a girl likes him, cue gay panic, just about love, learning how to care about each other when it's hard, post-season 3, will is gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-06-27 15:45:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19793983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zestylady/pseuds/zestylady
Summary: Every year, El and Will go back to Hawkins to celebrate the anniversary of the week everything changed for them. This year, Mike chooses to surprise them.*A soft story about El and her relationship to the world around her, especially Mike and Will*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is one of my first fanfics, but I just couldn’t get the story out of my head. I can’t seem to decide if it works better as a collection of one shots or as a longer, one arc story. I’d love to know what you think, if it should be stand-alone or if it needs more!!

*** _November 1987*_**

“I don’t know Alice, I don’t want to go to Dylan MacNamara’s house and watch everyone get drunk and be stupid.”

“Ugh, Jane, it’s not like I want to go anymore than you, but my sister really wants to go and my mom is making me go with as her _chaperone_.” Alice rolled her eyes as they walked toward the double doors that led out to the parking lot. The bell had just rung and the two girls had finished their last class of the day- U.S. History. It was El’s least favorite class.

Even if she had a good teacher (which she didn’t) she would have hated it. History, with all of those dates and names and events she needed to memorize just to prove that she “understood” America. They had just started a unit on the War of 1812, and even that one had dates she struggled to get straight. It didn’t help that her teacher, Mr. Robinson, held the firm belief that the government was correct in all things. He had a giant photo of Ronald Reagan up on the wall by the door, and any criticism was met with aggressive hostility. Sometimes, when he was on one of his “Freedom Tirades” El just wanted to rip her bracelet off and scream “Is this freedom? Is tattooing a number on a 7 year old child _freedom_?” But she never did.

She much preferred math- it was simple and clear, and she could solve problems with set structures. There clarity in equations that she never got from writing a history paper.

Today had been especially hard, as Mr. Robinson had decided to single her out not once, but 4 separate times to force her into answering questions about the affects of battles during the war. Her head felt foggy, as if there was too much space between her brain and her skull, and things were just knocking around loosely inside.

It didn’t help that this weekend was the four-year anniversary of the opening of the gate, her escape from the lab, and Will’s disappearance into the Upsidedown. All week the two of them had been on edge, skirting around one another at the house, trying to avoid thinking about all of the trauma.

After they had moved away, the Party had started a tradition to celebrate the anniversary with a trip back to Hawkins. It included building a giant blanket fort in the Wheeler’s basement, watching bad sci-fi movies, and always had a special appearance by Steve carrying 6 giant boxes of pizza. In a weird way, it was the best and worst time of the year for everyone, especially El and Will. The adoptive siblings were going to drive back with Jonathan the next day. He came home from college specially every year to take them. He was on his way Bloomington with Nancy, they were supposed to arrive later that evening. El could hardly focus on anything besides the next day, and the prospect of being around people who she could feel completely herself with.

Alice pulled her out of her reverie. Before she could find her way into the warmth of a blanket fort with Mike and stupid magazines with Max, her friend was going to try to force her to go to a kegger.

“C’mon. I can’t go to this stupid party as the only weird girl. I need someone to hide in the bathroom with.”

“Alice, I can hide in the bathroom at my house, and I can do it in my pjs.”

El didn’t want to go to the party. She didn’t want to spend the night feeling invisible, surrounded by all of the people she spent most of her time trying to avoid. Plus there was the fact that it was going to be at Dylan MacNamara’s house, the quarterback on the school’s football team. He had recently decided that Eleven was going to be the “Quirky Girl” notch in his belt. He would walk next to her as she went to class, constantly making innuendos and trying to touch the small of her back as his friends looked on and cackled. It didn’t matter how many times she told him to go away. Once, when talking about him on the phone with Max, her friend suggested that she just say she had a boyfriend. It was true after all. But El refused. Even if that would work (which was highly unlikely considering Dylan MacNamara’s reputation), she refused to get him to leave her alone by being some other man’s property. Her powers had been coming back, slowly but surely, and she had figured out a way to create a little forcefield around herself in between passing periods so she wouldn’t have to feel his hot breath on her neck. She definitely didn’t want to put herself in closer vicinity to him, especially if beer was going to be involved.

But Alice would not be deterred.

“Ugh c’mon Jane!! Just help me watch out for my dumb little sister. Besides… you could bring Will… I mean, I bet it’d be fun to have him there.”

El glanced over at her only friend at Bloomington Central High. Alice had been the first person to talk to her on that first agonizing day of school three years before. At the beginning of homeroom, she had seen Eleven walk into class looking around the room like a trapped animal. Under the bright fluorescent lights, Alice had been able to sense El’s anxiety so clearly, and immediately knew how to connect with the shy quiet new girl in the oversized flannel. But for some reason, Alice’s deeply perceptive nature could not seem to penetrate the reality that El’s adoptive brother was never going to reciprocate her giant crush. El had tried to bring it up once with her, but Alice was so embarrassed at the idea of El talking to her about _Will_ like _that_ that she completely shut down.

As they made their way out into the sunlit parking lot, El tried to come up with a sufficient excuse to shut down the conversation.

“I don’t think this is a good weekend for Will.. or for me. We have to go to Hawkins tomorrow for… a family thing. And it’s just a…” she racked her brain for a simple way to tell her about the Anniversary, “it’s hard to expla-”

But right at that moment, Eleven stopped in her tracks. 30 feet away, leaning up against the hood of his mom’s station wagon, was a tall, skinny beanpole of a boy with too much hair and a gigantic smile plastered across his face.

As soon as she saw him, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Hey! Hopper! Need a ride home?”

Mike Wheeler had hardly finished the sentence when she was crashing into him, tossing her book on the hood of the car and kissing him like her life depended on it. He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up, her legs kicking up as he lifted her.

She could hardly breathe. She had been expecting to see him tomorrow, it had been the only thing sustaining her through this hellish week. But here he was, she could feel his arms on her skin, her fingers in his hair. She pulled away, trying to catch her breath.“What are you doing here, Mike?” She asked breathlessly as he set her down, her lips still centimeters away from his.

“Thought I’d surprise you,” he said with a grin, “The Party wanted to put together a welcome home wagon for The Anniversary, and I appointed myself as official chauffeur.”

El responded with another kiss, sinking into the softness of his lips and the feeling of his hands on her hips. She was almost to the point of forgetting where she was and sinking completely into his warm body when she felt a presence walk up behind her.

She broke away from the kiss and looked around. Alice was staring at her, but so were a lot of other students. It wasn’t like BCH was the biggest school in the world, and resident Quiet Girl Jane Hopper kissing some random boy outside of the school on a Friday afternoon was definitely gossip worth paying attention to. She saw Dylan MacNamara staring open-mouthed, holding a football as if he had been mid-throw when he saw her kiss Mike.

El looked at Alice, a blush now creeping up her neck. “Um… Alice! I’ve told you about Mike, haven’t I? I guess he showed up to surprise me and Will…”

“Well, I thought I would drive you both back to Hawkins for The Anniversary,” Mike smiled brightly at Alice, extending his hand, “It’s so good to meet you. I feel like El has told me so much, I’m glad I can finally put a face to your name. Every time El would say ‘Alice’ I would just imagine the girl from the Disney cartoon.”

Alice had been staring, slightly open-mouthed at Mike, but when he extended his hand, she shook it and seemed to come out of her reverie.

“Uh.. El?” She asked, looking confused.

“Oh! He means me!” El responded, her blush deepening even more.

“Yeah! Sorry, it’s just an old… nickname?” Mike said with a quizzical look at El.

“Uh-huh, nickname.” She said, with a meaningful look at her boyfriend, “my middle name is Eleanor, and Mike started calling me El when we were kids. It just kind of stuck.”

“Huh.. that’s cool.” But her friend still seemed slightly confused. “Wait I thought you had a family thing in Hawkins this weekend?” Said Alice with another look between her and Mike.

El had obviously told Alice about Mike, but he had always visited during holidays when her Bloomington friends were busy with family stuff, and mostly she and Will would go back to Hawkins if they wanted to hang out with the Party. Alice hadn’t ever actually met Mike, only heard about him, or seen pictures, or sometimes heard him talking over El’s Supercomm. She definitely wasn’t familiar with the true story of how they met. As far as Alice knew, Mike and the rest of El and Will’s Hawkins friends were just a group they used to play Dungeons and Dragons with. It explained all of Will’s monster drawings hung up in his room.

But Mike wasn’t prepped for making up a story right now, and Alice was especially good at spotting a lie. El jumped in quickly.

“It is a family thing! Jonathan and Nancy have an anniversary-”

Mike, catching on to El’s story, jumped in, “Yeah, and my parents are throwing them a party. It’s kind of stupid, but any excuse to get the Party back together works for me. Plus this way, Jonathan and Nancy can just drive straight to Hawkins and the three of us can have a road trip. Speaking of- where’s Will?”

“Oh he’s in Art Club on Friday’s in the painting room,” Alice answered, a little too quickly. Now it was her turn to blush, but Mike didn’t seem to notice.

“Huh. Well, how were you planning to get home? Don’t you two usually walk together?”

“Yeah, Alice and I were going to eat some candy while we wait for him. But if he knows you’re here I’m sure he’d skip the rest of Art Club! He will be so surprised!!”

“Oh I can go get him, bring him to see you.” Alice volunteered, her eyes carefully avoiding El’s.

Mike perked up, “Yeah! Just don’t tell him I’m here. You can say El-, Jane got sick or something and he needs to help her get home.”

“Haha, okay, sounds good. I’ll be right back.”

As Alice skipped off to grab Will, El turned back to her boyfriend, pressing her cheek into his chest and wrapping her arms around him. She inhaled deeply, breathing in his smell, feeling his heart beat.

“I missed you.” She whispered softly into his chest.

“I missed you more.”


	2. Love like Everyone Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike connects with El as her friend goes to find Will. We learn more about how Will and El connected after the first few months of their move to Bloomington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! 
> 
> I am so happy that people have liked this story so much! Sorry for taking so long to get ch. 2 up, I was traveling and moving and doing lots of big #life things. 
> 
> I decided to turn this into a longer story, but I also wanted to explore how everyone got to the place they are now, specifically El and Will's relationship. I am going to include some flashbacks throughout the story. I really really loved writing about the two of them. I have thought a lot about how El would relate to Will, and how she would probably feel guilty and uncomfortable around him.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!!

**CHAPTER 2: Love like everyone else**

El stood wrapped in Mike’s arms for another moment as they waited for Alice to return with Will. Most people in the parking lot had gotten over the drama of seeing Jane kiss the stranger, and they had returned to their regularly scheduled Friday afternoon celebrations.

El was so happy to see Mike that she had almost forgotten all of the plans for the weekend.

“Wait! Jonathan… he is coming here. And Joyce! She might get mad.”

Mike brushed it off, “Don’t worry about it. Did you think _my mom_ would let me go on a road trip to Bloomington without having a very in depth conversation with Mrs. Byers about all the details involved?”

El looked at her boyfriend, trying not to roll her eyes. Mrs. Wheeler wasn’t necessarily known for her attention to detail. Mike saw what she was trying not to say.

“Okay, okay. I know she’s not always on it about this kind of stuff, but when I need to borrow the car, I need to tell her the truth about where I’m going. So I needed her permission. Anyway, she and Mrs. Byers talked about it last week, and as far as my mom is concerned, I will be sleeping on the floor in Will’s room, and my bedtime is a strict 11:30 so I can drive safely tomorrow.” He smiled at her slyly.

“I understand.” She said, trying not smile too much.

“And as soon as I got permission to come, I called Nancy and Jonathan and told them about the surprise. They are just going to drive straight to Hawkins tonight- it actually cuts off like 3 hours from their trip. It’s a win-win.”

“Wow. You really planned everything.” El didn’t mean to sound so shocked, but it was just so new for her still- this whole “having someone who loves you” thing. She understood the way Joyce cared for her when she had the flu, or Will making sure to put the right amount of milk in her cereal in the morning before school, just the way she liked it. She even understood when Max would write her letters and include pictures cut out from magazines of Ralph Macchio and her more recent obsession, Eric Stoltz.

_She and Max had seen “Some Kind of Wonderful” the year before when she and Will had visited Hawkins for spring break, and seeing such a perfect guy like him fall for Watts, the tomboy with short hair and an awkward style, touched something deep in El that she didn’t even know she needed. She had taken Mike with her to see it again the next day, squeezing his hand a little too tightly when Keith, Eric Stoltz character, opened up his palm to reveal the diamond earrings he had bought for Watts. When they left the movie, Mike pulled her aside and gave her a soft kiss. “Still pretty?” she whispered, tugging on her hair that was now far past her shoulders. He pulled her into a tight hug. “The prettiest. It’s bitchin’.”_

_El had laughed then, wiping her eyes gently, “I always knew you were stupid.”_

But even now, Mike found ways to shake her completely.

“I’m so glad you’re here. And you get to meet Alice! I think part of her didn’t know if you were real.”

“What are you talking about? There are pictures of us all over your room! And where did she think you and Will were going during all of those school breaks?”

“She knows your _real_ but not… my _boyfriend._ I think she thought I was using it as a reason. To not do things. That’s what everyone else thinks anyway.”

“Everyone else? What do you mean?”

El hadn’t told Mike anything about Dylan. She didn’t want to worry him, and it wasn’t like she was in any danger. Mike would have just gotten upset and distracted. He had the SATs coming up and he had been so stressed out recently. El didn’t want to add anything to it. And now he was here, and she didn’t want to focus on something so dumb when she could wrap herself up in his arms. Better to focus on the things they could control.

“Oh! I should warn you. Alice has a _huge_ crush on Will. Don’t say anything though, I’m not even supposed to know.”

“Wait- what?” Mike started smiled softly. “On _Will?_ Doesn’t she know…?”

But before El could get into her friend’s willful blindness to Will’s obvious disinterest, they heard a shout.

“Paladin!”

Will was running toward Mike and El now, his face lit up. Alice was following behind a bit slower, watching him dreamily.

“Cleric!” Mike yelled back, running up to his friend and enveloping him in a giant hug. Will looked over at El and smiled brightly. She smiled back and felt her heart swell. Over the years, Mike, El, and Will had held so many different roles in one another’s lives. For so long, to both of Will and El, Mike had been untouchable, a far-away dream they would never reach. And now here they were, able to care for each other and hold space for all the types of love they shared.

_When they first moved away from Hawkins, Will would ignore his new sister most of the time, never going into her room (full of photos of Mike, Max, the whole party). He wouldn’t talk to her except at dinner or on the walk to school. He especially avoided the kitchen at night, when El would be talking softly to Mike on the phone for hours on end._

_All El had wanted was to connect with him. She could feel his eyes on her sometimes, like when she was watching her soaps and he was drawing at the kitchen table, or on their walks to school. She didn’t know what she did wrong, only that she had hurt him and he wasn’t able to forgive her._

_She had asked Mike about it once, but he just said it was in her head, that Will is just a quiet guy. But Mike wasn’t there. He didn’t see the ways Will avoided her eyes when she told him about her plans to visit Hawkins. He couldn’t understand how lonely it felt for her here. It wasn’t lonely like the lab, where there wasn’t even the hope of friendship, and it wasn’t like the cabin, constantly dreaming about friendships and people who were just out of reach. This loneliness was a sharper pain, because she knew it wasn’t about being kept from someone, it was rejection._

_One day, two months after arriving in Bloomington, she went into his room after school and sat down on his bed._

_“Hi.”_

_He looked at her, confused, “Hi?”_

_“Can we talk?”_

_“Uh, yeah I guess. I kind of have homework though.” Will avoided her gaze._

_El didn’t know what to say, so she just let the question that had been bubbling inside her for months out._

_“Why do you hate me?”_

_Will looked up, startled._

_“Is it because I opened the gate? I am the reason you were in the Upsidedown. It’s my fault. Do you hate me because I hurt you?” There were tears in her eyes, and she hated herself for it. She hadn’t wanted to cry. She hadn’t wanted to make this about her pain. She wanted to fix his._

_Will looked at her, for what felt like the first time, he looked at her straight on, not avoiding her gaze. He seemed taken aback by how upset she was, almost as if he hadn’t expected her to feel so strongly about him._

_“I don’t hate you, El. I- I don’t blame you for everything that happened_ down there _. It wasn’t your fault. I know that.”_

_“Then why… don’t you like me?” Her eyes were still glistening, but she refused to look away._

_“El, I can’t explain. It’s not about_ you _. It’s about…” Will glanced around the room, trying to find the words. His eyes fell for a moment on a photo of him and the party from Christmas two years before, all sitting on the couch, Mike’s arm around him. El looked over at it too._

_She gazed again at Will, he was shaking slightly. Finally, she understood._

_“Mike. You love Mike.”_

_Will turned to look at her and nodded softly. Now he was crying too._

_They stared at one another for a long moment, not breaking eye contact._

_“I hurt you. I took him away.”_

_“That’s not true. He was never mine.”_

_“But I took him. And you love him.”_

_Will nodded again. El reached out her hand, and Will took it, surprised._

_“I’m sorry.” She squeezed softly, “I didn’t know. I don’t want you to hate me.”_

_Tears were streaming down his face now, “I don’t hate you El. I hate that I feel like this. I wish I could be like everyone else. I wish I could like girls like the others. I wish I loved like other people love.”_

_El didn’t understand this. She loved Mike, and Will loved Mike. They loved the same way._

_“But you do love like other people. You love everyone. You are so kind. I always wanted you to love me like that.”_

_Will looked up at her. It was the first time anyone had said that to him. He couldn’t speak, he just nodded softly._

_“Will, can we be a family even if I love the person you love? I want to be loved by you too.”_

After that night, they understood each other. Will finally found a way to connect to El, and they learned how to talk. They joked about how annoying Mike was, how gross all the boys were together, the many idiots at their school.

A month later, he told Joyce. She hugged him and cried and told him how proud she was to be his mother. Then she sat next to him, holding his hand as he told Jonathan, who squeezed his shoulder and told him that “normal was for losers anyway”. By the end of the school year, he told the rest of the party, starting with Mike. Mike hugged him, held him close and whispered that he would always be there. Will took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of his best friend, and he felt himself begin to mend.

These days, Will didn’t have a crush on Mike anymore. There were moments when the lingering tinge would come back to him in waves, that raw pain of first love, but for the most part he could look at his sister and his friend and feel nothing but affection. It was hard to hate them anyway. They were just so devoted to one another, so kind and loving. Now, when he looked at them, his jealousy felt a lot more like a yearning for something like that of his own.

Will hugged his friend tightly and began to ask all of the same questions El had already gone over. She took the opportunity to turn to her friend and smile.

“So this is Mike. I am so happy you get to meet him.”

“Yeah! He seems so…” Alice didn’t seem to have a good adjective to give her friend, “Tall.”

El smiled. She had never had to navigate friendships like this- two different worlds full of people she cared about. She desperately wanted Alice to like Mike and vice versa, but she didn’t know how to bridge the gap of her friend here and her world of people back home.

For the most part, she didn’t talk too much about Hawkins. It was too difficult to navigate all of the lies she needed to maintain, and often it just felt too painful. But Alice was her friend, and friends shouldn’t lie. That meant sharing the important parts of life too.

Mike was explaining the plan to Will now, “…Pretty much we just need to get on the road kind of early tomorrow, but there isn’t really anything else we have to do. What should we do tonight?”

Will looked pensive, “Scary movie fest? My mom would probably be okay with us renting a VCR and we could order pizza. There’s this amazing pizza place near us. Dude, its better than anything in Hawkins.”

But Alice was listening now, and she jumped in, “Actually, Jane and I were going to go to this party tonight with my little sister.” El snapped her eyes to her friend. She had never said she would go to the party. This was not how she wanted to spend her night with her boyfriend. But Alice was forging ahead without looking at her. “We should all go together! Mike, you can meet all the people from our school!”

Mike looked a bit uncomfortable. Parties weren’t exactly his thing either, but he didn’t want to sound rude, especially to his girlfriend’s best friend in Bloomington. “Uh, well I guess it could be cool to stop by for a little. What do you guys think?” He looked at Will and El, who were both frozen, unsable to fully say what they were thinking.

Will just nodded. He had heard about the party, and some of his Art Club friends were going. It wasn’t supposed to be the worst night ever. El looked from Will to Alice to Mike. She had no idea what to do, but here she was.

“Yeah. Party. Fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Kind of Wonderful is my favorite John Hughes movie, and I feel like El would really connect with seeing a movie where the main love story includes a girl who isn't conventionally beautiful. I think she would probably feel really seen by that story.
> 
> Also, i love that people had to literally rent a VCR to watch movies at home lol.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are my fav!! Chapter 3 will hopefully be up by the end of the week.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and feedback would make me so so happy!!


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